Technical Excellence: Flexible deployment options (including both on premises and in the cloud, fast development, optimized performance. This includes the CoreMedia Blueprint, the Studio SDK and the Elastic Social API

CoreMedia 7

It's important to understand that CoreMedia isn't trying to be everything to everyone. It wants to provide a platform that is both rich in features for web experiences, yet extensible. With CoreMedia 7 the core portfolio hasn't changed substantially, but things have changed that improve the speed at which a new website/channel can be deployed either on premises or in the cloud.

CoreMedia 7 Portfolio

The Blueprint

The Blueprint -- which was originally an optional component has now been fully productized and is the de facto standard fast platform.The Blueprint offers a number of out-of-the-box components and solutions that will get your implementation up and running quickly. It replaces the Starter Kit that was offered to help organizations get up and running quickly. CoreMedia has split the Blueprint into Core and Flex, with Flex having more advanced functionality. Use the Flex features to be on the cutting edge of innovation.

Mobile Enhancements

CoreMedia 7 has a responsive design architecture which as you know supports the creation of content that is automatically optimized for different delivery channels. What's interesting about CoreMedia's approach is that not only does it support a single source of content for web-based delivery, but it also sources to native mobile apps as well using a native mobile app connector.

CoreMedia 7 has a Responsive Slider that allows you to view what your web page will look like on different devices (from the web page, to a tablet landscape, tablet portrait to smartphone). And if you want to see how your site looks for real, there's a Preview URL with a security code that enables you to view that content on a real device.

Social Data

With the ability to integrate both internal and external social data, CoreMedia offers a number of social tools for moderating social activity, community management and the publishing of social content. Elastic Social now supports a NOSQL architecture ensuring that all that data collected can be stored and easily accessed ( I could say big data here, but you know what I mean).

A Cloud Solution

Not only can you implement CoreMedia on premises, but also in the cloud. That's not new for version 7 though. What is new, is that you can easily deploy portions of your implementation into a cloud infrastructure. So if you have a campaign ready to launch and you know it's going to pull some heavy traffic, deploy that component into the cloud to ensure it can support the load.

Contextual Content

A key element of CoreMedia's platform for awhile is that you need to offer contextual experiences. The latest version expands on that idea making it easier for marketers to design their web presence based on both implicit and explicit context. Within CoreMedia 7 you get a Persona Selector that lets you view your content based on different Personas. There are personas out the box, but you also extend based on your needs.

On top of all this, there's a new Dashboard within CoreMedia Studio (the editorial hub for marketers/editors), that you can customize to show the things you want to see, whether it's what you are working on, what others are working, latest comments, shortcuts to launch new campaign sites, websites, and more.

CoreMedia Dashboard

I had a demo of CoreMedia 7 and I have to admit I was impressed at how quickly a new microsite was up and running. A solution like this appeals to marketers because it's straightforward to select options, add content, view how it looks on different devices and for different personas.

Of course I understand that a lot of work goes into getting this up and running, including ensuring the technical environment is designed and built to be scalable and high performing, deciding on branding, creating templates that can be used, defining personas and much, much more -- that's something you have to do no matter what platform you choose. The key is, how easy is it to use once you do all that? Are you making it easier for a marketer to focus on providing the right content to the right person in the right context?